


Lone and Level Sands

by CarrionStar



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, OC lore book, There are other characters, canon-typical violence death and dying, i treat this as if it could be an in-game lore tab, mostly OCs, nothing extreme or explicit, some canon characters as well but i won't tag all so i don't clutter the tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:55:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28607100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarrionStar/pseuds/CarrionStar
Summary: This is a "lore book" about two characters: main here is Null-3, who is a character I originally made for my Destiny tabletop RP and was later revealed to have been identical to a Titan my friend made so we merged them. I'm writing the bulk of his story and his earlier backstory will be slowly revealed (because I'm too lazy to completely clear up the RP log). The other character in this "lore book" is Jay, an Awoken Titan I play in-game. I do not headcanon him as the Young Wolf and I try to keep my story canon-compliant when it comes to events and the background lore. I'm a lore nerd so. It's mostly about OCs, with canon characters appearing in the background.These characters are connected to the work of CoyoteStar, so for a full experience check their OC lore book as well!https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoyoteStarNull-3 has a very rough awakening as a Guardian and begins his long journey to the Last City, adopting kids on the way.
Kudos: 3





	1. Shattered Visage

It is difficult to feel anything but the cold when surrounded by ice. Freezing winds carrying particles of icy dust. They cut through all protective gear and they cut deep.

He's already been here once. In an icy desert with nothing but a distant dark tower looming over the horizon.

And then, out of nowhere, people. Faceless shapes at first, then people he can recognise. The first time he was here, it was short. Not many shapes. Even less people. He walked through the ice which turned to a prosperous valley and entered the tower, only to wake up with his mind crystal sharp.

He only vaguely remembers the experience. It is more akin to a dream.

The second time, this time, it is colder. The ice does not disappear nor turn into a valley. It is harsh, the terrain is ragged and slippery at the same time. There’s thousands of shapes, rushing at him. The wind blows the freezing rain into his face plate and it pierces him like a million daggers.

Each shape is aggressive. Ramming into him with purpose and the purpose is violence. He is forced to first push and then smash his way through.

Doesn’t matter. They’re just shapes. Mindless horde battered away with little effort.

Some external pressure weighs down on him, turning the shapes into people. He knows that he can recognise them, but his mind cannot tell him how exactly. The pressure distorts his circuits and his vision blurs.

A line of people in corporate suits. A line of people in mechanic outfits. He has to push through every single one. What started as mild pushing, soon turns into a struggle. At a line of civilian-dressed figures, he is aware that he is using his enormous strength to fight in ways he did not think he was capable of. Shattered ribs, caved-in skulls, torn limbs. All of it trails behind him as he clears his way through the mass in a mad run for the tower.

In the tower, he will be safe.

The first time he stops is to clear his vision from the overwhelming pressure. Then he sees a man, erratic in his movement with dishevelled hair and a look of madness in his eyes. Comfortable madness. The madness he knows. Around him, a swarm of books and scrolls as old as the world. The man rants without pause, in languages unknown. As if preaching to the void, preaching some kind of a warning. A blaring horn follows each word.

The punch knocks the breath out of the man and he steps over him and his books and scrolls. A pang of familiarity strikes him through the heart, but he does not turn back. He cannot. He must go forward.

A young woman stuck to a machine monstrosity surges towards him. She controls the overwhelming and loud mechanical body that oozes oil and steam, clattering in the icy terrain as it jitters towards him. It only takes him a moment to tear through the machine and see the tears on the young woman’s cheeks.

The pressure distorts his body fully now as the uniformed march of various Exos approaches him. The army of metal, streaming down the hill. He’s so close to the tower, but the Exos swarm him. As he makes his way through, discarding torn pieces of their bodies, the pain in his chest grows. Their voices howl at him, echoing the same pain. Each one he strikes down is one step closer to the tower.

In front of it, there is only one person. An old lady, pleasantly smiling and holding a cup of tea. The freezing winds batter her, but she stands there nonetheless, extending her arm, offering a cup that’s perfectly stable and the warm drink inside puffs out steam into the air. The woman is flanked by two large data storage elements. They seem to be endless. There is no way through, besides through the woman in front of him.

He takes the cup. It breaks the moment he touches it.

The woman is a frozen statue, encased in an iron coffin.

He takes a step forward.

The coffin shatters and with it, the data storage elements shatter as well.

His path is clear. The tower is within reach. As he grabs the doorway, he looks back for the first time and sees a massive sheet of ice and land coming down on top of each other.

He passes through the door.

_> >>System reboot complete._

_> >>Welcome, Null-3._

Null-3 wakes up on a piece of plasteel containment unit floating in the middle of the sea. The water is cold, but he can only feel partially feel it. There is something warming him from the inside. Perhaps a malfunctioning core.

“Hello?”

The voice appears as if coming from thin air until Null detects a tiny flying drone in front of him. He’s still floating on a piece of containment unit in the middle of the sea and he has no idea how he got there or why is there a tiny drone talking to him. He looks to the unit and sees writing on it. A lot of nonsense; most of the letters were scrapped or washed away. Null moves to the side and hears creaking as the unit tilts in the water. Other than the soft splashing of waves and the drone’s whirring, there are no other sounds.

“I am your Ghost. Would you like to name me?”

Null looks to the drone and then around and then back to the piece of garbage he was floating on. Words escape him, but he does notice one piece of clear writing next to his arm. It’s not a complete word, that’s obvious, but it will do.

“Zyma?”


	2. Rush of a Storm

Null is one of the few Exos in a group of civilians moving through the empty valleys, going in a direction one of the drones told them to follow. There’s three drones floating with the group; the fourth, Null’s, is hidden.

He didn’t reveal it or himself as one of the Risen. He was not sure how to process it and it didn’t take long to see how Risen behave and how civilians respond to them.

Null looked scary enough. He did not need to frighten these civilians further.

But he was ready. Ready to defend them should they be attacked. He’s seen the monsters lurking in the woods and caves and in the ancient decaying wreckages and ruins of the old world. Null wished he could remember what it all looked like before, but no matter how much he tried, he could not.

Most of all, he wished he could remember why he woke up floating on a piece of plasteel containment in the middle of the ocean. His Ghost explained that he was dead and brought back to life, _risen_ , to fight enemies of humanity with the power of the Light. Simple enough, as far as explanations go.

But what happened that led to his death?

It took a very long time to find the first other human being in the wasteland. It was a family of five, shivering beneath the flimsy old metal that served as cover from the elements. Null still remembers how they screamed when he exposed them from their shelter and how long it took to assure them he’s not a threat.

Since then, the group only grew. People followed him and other drones joined, urging them to go back to the Traveler. But the Traveler was a long way away still.

It’s been years of wandering. Members of the group were lost, either to illness, to hunger or to enemies. More were gained, as people naturally flocked to the imposing Exo painted pitch black and with a frightening red stare of his eyes.

Null only fought with scavenged weapons and nothing else. It was enough. He could not remember his old life, but he knew his way around weapons. He didn’t speak much. Only when it was necessary. To bark orders. To alert people to danger. To tell them it’s safe to rest.

And when children asked questions. They were not as afraid of him as the adults. He carried them on his shoulders and his back and the smallest ones would even just cling to his head and arms. They asked a lot of questions when they were not sleeping, but Null did not have the answers to give them.

_What are these beings? Why are they attacking us? What is the Traveler? What are these drones? Are we there yet?_

The other three drones, Ghosts, tried to answer some of the questions and the children would listen wide-eyed as the tiny machines spun in the air, shining their little lights around Null.

The _beings_ are Fallen. Aliens from another world. Attacking humanity over the Traveler which they consider theirs.

The Traveler, a benevolent machine that gave humanity all they ever needed, transforming their civilisation into a spacefaring one. Until one day it was no more and instead of it, there were the drones.

Null feels pressure all over his body whenever the topic swerves in that direction. The pressure of something distant and dark. _And cold_.

And no, they were not there yet.

Instead of seeing the Traveler, Null set his eyes upon a bunch of ramshackle huts situated at the edge of a forest. They were clearly made in haste. He heard noises from the village. He ordered his group to stop.

Aliens and drones and strange stories, none of those frightened Null.

It was other Risen that made him shiver. And some of those were clearly there in the village. He could see it; the way they towered over the people, with their shiny weapons and armours. They even had a vehicle; repurposed Fallen tech. Null calculated that he could fit all of his people into that vehicle and make their journey easier and faster.

But just as he could see them, so could they see him. Him and his flock. _Prey_. And while he did teach his people how to use weapons and distributed what little they had among them, they stood no chance against Risen. There was nothing they could do to an enemy that can come back to life.

It was getting dark and the weather wasn’t favourable either. The village could’ve been a great place to rest during the rainy night, but now, they have to move on, as soon as possible. Null makes the order to keep going, swiftly.

“Hey, where’s the rush?”

The voice comes from one of the Risen in the village. They are looking at him, leaning on a machine gun that digs into the wet dirt.

“Yeah, don’t ya want to get some rest?” Another one chimes in.

Null frowns. From what he can tell, only three of the intruders are Risen. He can see three Ghosts. But then again, others may be hiding theirs, just like he is. A child tugs at his palm, fear in her eyes.

“We are just passing through,” Null responds. He knows how to remain calm and composed in the face of danger. “Thank you for your offer.”

The Risen with the machine gun moves, standing up to full height. Null observes as she effortlessly lifts the weapon and flings it over her shoulder. She takes her time to walk up towards Null and Null accepts the challenge. He shakes the child off his arm and starts walking up to the Risen. If there was to be a fight, he wants it as far from his people as possible.

He had already instructed the few others who knew how to fight to keep the rest safe in case he has to leave or if he were to die. As soon as he detaches from the group, they take their positions and Null is finally relieved and approaches the Risen in the open, between the village and his people.

The Risen is remarkably tall for an ordinary human, but he is still taller and bulkier. Null cracks the joints on his neck as he stands in front of the woman. She is snickering, sizing him up and tapping the machine gun mounted over her shoulder.

“You’re brave, Exo. I know your kind is tough, but you can’t beat immortality. I will turn you into scrap metal and wear your head as a helmet,” she says, her tone confident in the power she wields. “Or you can do as I say and I might just let you and your entourage go unharmed. We are only looking for supplies, after all.”

Null listens to her without interrupting. He nods with interest as she finishes. Then he waits. It doesn’t sit well with the Risen.

“Do we have a deal, Exo?” She asks impatiently.

Null watches as her snicker turns into a frown and the Risen behind her reaching for their weapons. A lone raindrop touches his forehead and a distant lightning rumbles somewhere behind the forest.

“No. No, I don’t think we do,” Null replies.

“Are you dumb? Or do you just not care, _machine_?” The Risen asks, mocking. The arm holding the machine gun is now engulfed in fire, sizzling as raindrops fall. “Never trusted your kind. Here you are, thinking you’re above us. Even above us Risen. We should’ve scrapped all of you before the Collapse. There’s no-…”

The rumble of the thunder lines up perfectly with the raw storm of arc energy piled up around Null’s fist, which he slams directly into the Risen’s head. The sound of a metal fist engulfed in lightning cracking through flesh and bone echoes through the wasteland, all the way to the village and its forest.

The Risen falls on the wet dirt, the machine gun rolling off to the side and her arm no longer in flames. Her Ghost floats up above her body but static electricity zaps it. The Ghost turns to look at Null.

“You will do nothing,” Null warns it. “Me and my people will take the village. You and your Risen and the rest of you will leave. If I see any of you ever again, not even the Traveler itself will save you.”

Not a minute later, all of them are gone. The rain pours without mercy and the thunder paints the sky as Null walks back to his people.

They stare in shock and awe. Some in fear.

“It is safer if I keep it hidden,” Null explains.

The little girl from before runs to him and clings to his leg. Three more children follow. Their hair stands up from the static surrounding Null. Soon he’s immobilised by children seeking shelter from the rain beneath the towering Exo.

It is enough for the group to sigh in relief and move to the village, for the first time without fear of being defenceless.


	3. Crushed with Sorrow

Null was with them for two whole years.

The people from the village rejoiced and offered shelter for Null’s generous help, but their intended short stay turned into something more. His people were tired of walking and running, of sleeping in old rags in the open, of eating scraps on the run.

The village was secluded and near a forest. Plenty of easily accessible food and water. The generous villagers had enough space to let everyone from Null’s flock have a roof above their heads, much needed especially in the time of an oncoming winter.

Null occupied himself with building and later reinforcing walls around the village. He built himself a hut of his own on the ramshackle wall and used it as both a home and a vantage point from which he could see any potential danger.

The villagers, much like his flock, were ordinary people. Human families that have somehow survived the Collapse. A few other Exos, though none of them military in any capacity. And three Awoken.

It was the first time he saw the Awoken. The three were a small family: mother, son and daughter. It was weeks before he truly understood what the Awoken were and decided to trust them. A strange new breed of humans who came from beyond Earth? It raised his suspicions, but the trio proved to be reliable and Null let any hostility evaporate from his thoughts.

The mother was an older Awoken and tied to her bed. Apparently injured during landing on Earth and unable to walk. Regardless, she was adamant about being useful: she helped with kids, kept book-keeping and records of people in the village and their possessions and offered infinite wisdoms, most of which were far beyond Null’s understanding.

Her daughter was a swift and nimble young woman who had clearly been trained in military combat and strategy. Null utilised that heavily and relied on her for help during hunting and combat, as well as for training others.

And her brother, although younger, was bigger than her. Less nimble, but strong. He trailed after Null at all times and asked how he could be of assistance. He was the only one that could more or less comfortably wear Null’s old armour pieces. The two of them would patrol village boundaries together and hunt together. Null set out to teach the siblings as much as he could because—

“One day, me and my people will continue towards the City. If you decide not to follow us, you need to know how to survive in the wild,” Null explained every time he could.

And Null was about to leave 3 months in when he was comfortable knowing that he’s leaving the village well-defended and packed with supplies, but a hunting party gone wrong ruined his plans.

A group of Fallen ambushed him and the Awoken siblings during a routine supply run. Just as they were about to wrap up the game they’d caught and secure the water kegs onto the makeshift vehicle, the unfamiliar cackling of an alien language echoed through the forest. Null told the Awoken to run back to the village with the supplies, but they refused to let him fight alone.

It was a moment of weakness the Fallen exploited and Null was struck with a long staff engulfed in arc energy. The tip of the spear pierced through his chest plate when he stood between the Fallen and the Awoken.

The group of Fallen took the moment to celebrate, screeching through the forest and jumping off trees, circling around their prey.

Null turned to face the siblings.

“Go,” he said and pulled the spear out of his chest.

Another pierced him through the left thigh, leaving him to tumble to his knees. “ _Go._ ”

The young Awoken woman shook her head and pulled the spear out of his leg, spun it in her arms and hurled it back towards the Fallen, striking the one that threw it through the neck.

In an instant, the Fallen became quiet. Null stared at the woman. She was out of breath, rage gathering in her eyes. He knew that feeling. He knew the call of war.

Arc gathered inside of Null, lightning bolts surging from the spear wounds. He stood next to the woman, a manifestation of thunder. Strikes of lightning ran into the ground and up the trees, snapping several of them as the arc energy soared into the sky. It took one singular leap into the Fallen for all of them to be completely and utterly disintegrated.

Thunder rumbled through the forest in waves for hours to come.

Null returned to the village in a shape worse than he’s been in years. Decades perhaps. With the help of siblings, he managed to make it back and they also brought back the supplies.

And while the woman went on to take guard with a few other villagers, the Awoken man urged Null into his family’s hut where his mother immediately made space at the table for the Exo.

“I will be fine,” Null stated as firmly as possible and tried to leave, but the man pushed him back to the table.

“I need to check your inner systems and circuits and mend your outer plating,” the man said, grabbing a bag and emptying it next to Null.

A wide array of tools scattered everywhere. The Awoken’s glowing bright eyes frowned as he searched for the tools and the dots carefully painted on his upper face turned into half-circles and other shapes while he concentrated.

“He knows his way around Exos,” his mother reassured Null.

Unknown instruments and tools prodding into Null’s body would’ve been something he never would’ve allowed, ever. But in this instance, something about the Awoken hut filled with strange plants, crystals and glass calmed him into trust. He didn’t even feel any pain while the man worked on his wounds.

Two hours later, he was dozing off in a chair in the hut, patched up and with a cup of tea still in his hand.

Two years later, he mourned as he was leaving the village behind.


	4. Worn with Pain

Well trained and equipped for any eventuality, the Awoken siblings turned into formidable allies under Null’s tutelage.

The woman, Evie, was his scout. His eyes before him, a hawk on a branch and a viper in the grass.

Her brother, Jay, was his right hand. His engineer, his builder, a wall when his would fail.

The only reason he delayed leaving the village. Unsure if he should let these people stay alone but also unsure if he wanted to deprive the City of people as talented as the siblings. Humanity needed everything to rebuild.

How could he leave these people so far from civilisation trying to get back to its feet? He needed them. Humanity needed them.

Null was almost at the point of leaving again, with the siblings in tow, when their village ran out of its good luck. Year and a half into Null’s stay with them, Risen found them again. It was only a matter of time.

With the village reinforced and vulnerable people hidden away with supplies, Null and his pack of warriors waited for the attack. He looked to his left where Evie held the rear of the village from an ambush. She was fiercely protective of her people and her family. Acted on instinct that never failed. Perhaps something all Awoken had.

To his right, Jay stood almost as tall as him. Before he was a warrior, he was an expert in exoscience. Besides just fixing Null’s ailments, he also improved on his systems multiple times. Null could move faster, react better and see farther. And Jay’s laugh never failed to bring a smile to his own face, stiff as it was.

“I managed to extract some stuff from your memory core,” Jay had told him a few months ago, before they stood in a line waiting to strike. “Just some words. Maybe something useful about the City?”

“I doubt it. Only my Ghost knows where’s the City. I am older, that much I know.”

Null accepted a list of words Jay got for him and watched the Awoken play with his Ghost. Jay would try to poke it while it flew around his head, evading and blinking with its light.

“ _Ozymandias protocol_ ,” Null read. “Rings many bells, but I cannot put my finger on it.”

“Hey, that was written on the crates when I rezed you,” his Ghost chimed in. It pulled a picture from its memory, projecting it across Jay’s face. “You gave me a name from half a word!”

“I didn’t know,” Null replied.

“Now you have to do better,” Jay added and poked the Ghost in the central light, ending the projection when it blinked. The Awoken smiled and Ghost just flew into his forehead with a soft _bonk_.

Null returned to the words and found another one that sounded painfully familiar, but he was unable to truly understand it. “ _Nisien_.”

“I like it!” Ghost said.

Null nodded and the memory faded back to his present, a foggy evening with enemies on the horizon. Perhaps taking a stand here was a bad idea. Perhaps they should’ve packed and left when Evie returned from scouting and reported a group of Risen headed towards them.

Perhaps…

It weighed heavily on his shoulders after the battle. After the arc receded and fires were put out. After the suffocating void evaporated and the village had never been breached because his people rallied to him regardless of danger. Every living soul under his care charged into battle to protect the village, even the Awoken siblings’ mother.

Perhaps they should’ve left.

Jay was bent over the body of his mother, weeping like an inconsolable child. Null knew that without whatever she pulled out of her pocket, they may not have made it. A cracked ancient flute made of bone sang a high-pitched tone and something large galloped across the battlefield through the thick fog, followed by screams. She collapsed after, but so did several Risen.

She was buried with her flute two days later with the rest of the dead on a mound outside of the village, decorated with Awoken flowers and crystals.

It wasn’t until after the burial that Null saw Jay limping away with a trail of blood after him. A haze of voices engulfed him as he watched his sister run after him, trying to keep him on his feet and several other villagers rushing to get medical supplies. _I can’t lose anyone else. I can’t lose them._ Null was frozen with terror of a painful memory that existed in the back of his mind. Pressure created a headache that he should not have been able to have.

When Evie cried out in grief over her brother’s body, Null moved. They didn’t even make it back to the village.

He crouched next to Evie, looking at Jay on the ground and an ever-growing pool of blood seeping through the wound in the left side of his torso. His newly named Ghost, Nisien, ran a scan and shook its shell.

“No, no. No, Jay, you will not leave me. They’re getting the medical kit right now,” Evie whispered through tears, holding his hand.

Jay smiled. “It’s okay, sis. We defended the village. Just take care of them for me. Make them go with Null. To the City,” he breathed out heavily. “What’s the City like?” He asked, turning to Nisien.

The Ghost _bonked_ his forehead. “I’ve never been there, silly. We’ll see it together.”

Null picked Jay up from the ground and set the Awoken in his lap, cradling him like a parent would. “We’re going to the City. All of us.”

“Protect them,” Jay said with a smile that faded away.

Null shook him and Evie put pressure on his hand. Jay’s head swayed to the side lifelessly.

“No,” Evie said. She looked to Nisien. “Help him!”

“I… I can’t,” the Ghost replied.

Some of the villagers returned with the medical kits but stopped moving in closer when they saw there was nothing to be done.

“Any of you?!” Evie demanded, yelling at the several Ghosts that lived with them, hiding in the village out of her sight. “Please…”

Null still held Jay. He looked like he was simply sleeping. The silence went on. No Ghosts, no villagers anymore. They let Evie and Null grieve in peace.

But there was no peace. Not in Null. Never again. He swore he would not lose more of his people. He swore. And even with all of his power, he was powerless. Powerless to nudge Jay awake from his sleep. To make him stand up and smile and play with his Ghost and train with him. The devoted boy made the sacrifice and bravely accepted his fate, knowing he would not make it. He hid the wound. Didn’t want anybody to worry or direct attention away from people who needed more help.

Null looked into the distance. _Was this not enough?_ Who was worthy of the Traveler’s grace? Who if not people like Jay?

“I can’t…” Evie voiced when the silence went on for what seemed like eternity.

She stood and walked away into the fog, shaking, unable to watch her brother’s body. She just buried her mother. There was nothing left for her here. Null understood.

He stayed in the scorched field, surrounded by fog, cradling Jay’s body all night. And when the wolves howled in the night, he thought how they must’ve mourned for the boy. Jay used to leave old discarded food out for the animals. They knew.

The morning came and cleared the fog just enough for the sunshine to fall on Jay’s face. Null was still motionless in the field with the boy in his arms when Nisien showed up to nudge him out of his catatonic state. Null looked to the Ghost and blinked in confusion.

It wasn’t Nisien.

It was one of the unpaired Ghosts that tagged along with Null and his group.

It hovered above Jay’s body, now bathed in sunlight. Null stared at the Ghost as it spun its shell and then parted the pieces to reveal the central sphere.

Light streamed from the centre of the Ghost and spilled all over Jay’s body which was still being held by Null who watched in shocked awe.

Was it his begging? Was it his silent vigil throughout the night? Was it Jay’s inherent worthiness?

He felt the boy breathe in and saw him open his eyes.

Null knew that he’s confused. Without memories. Scared. Shaking. Newly reborn.

Null pulled him up into a hug and squeezed, sensing his own arc energy merging with Jay’s, awakening in him and flowing through his skin.


	5. World's Light Shines

He loved to stay outside during thunderstorms. Null would go ahead and find shelter for their people, but Jay would remain outside. To patrol the area while everyone was sleeping. To help Null divide their duties; one holding the walls from the inside of the shelter, one from the outside.

But Null knew the truth. Jay drew some primordial power from thunderstorms. The arc energy inside of him would swell up and streaks of lightning would dance over his face, alongside the shifting ethereal hues of the Awoken.

Jay was a natural at being a Titan. From the moment he stood, his fists engulfed in arc, he walked with the confidence and strength of those who keep the world on their shoulders. Null provided him with armour but Jay soon made his own from scraps they found along the way. And each scrap was turned into art.

He favoured blue and silver and white gold. Everything always etched into soft black. During thunderstorms, he was one with the dark, the rain battering his armour and lightning illuminating the blue and silver streaks of paint. Enemies never saw him in time. The only thing they saw was a lightning bolt crashing from the heavens. Who knows; perhaps they never even knew they’ve been struck by an entire Titan and not an ordinary lightning.

Jay preferred peaceful thunderstorms. Nights when all of their people were safely tucked into shelter and Null’s watchful eye had everything under control and the boy could go out and absorb the energy. When the nights were peaceful, he would strip bare and stand in the rain, surrounded by lightning.

His skin would draw the bolts and streaks of arc would sing wistful melodies as they swirled around him. And he could call upon beautiful shapes with arc; shapes of birds and wolves and weapons. He would weave entire stories with lightning across the rain.

Null didn’t know if that was an Awoken thing, but he doubted it. The boy was simply so naturally attuned to arc that it served almost as a charge to him. He was never hurt by lightning. It obeyed him. It respected him. That was how Null learned that he had never truly mastered the arc energy he had. In comparison with Jay, he was a rookie.

In other things, however, Jay remained the rookie he was before his untimely death. Null taught him everything from scratch. His name, his identity, showed him holograms and recordings of his family, taught him how to wield weapons and build.

Everything except exoscience. That stayed with Jay as an instinct. The first thing the boy did as he jumped back to his feet after being resurrected was stare at Null and rush to fix his battered Exo body. Null hadn’t even told him his name yet. Null had barely released him from the hug.

For the first time, Null wished he could cry.

Instead, he taught him. Told him everything. Told him about a sister that left, not knowing her brother now lived again. Jay committed her image to memory and swore to find her. He even went back to the village _and_ ran back to meet up with Null again before the Exo left the region with their people. The boy had enough energy to last five lifetimes.

“Did you run all the way there and back?” Null asked him when Jay returned, breathing heavily and drinking a third bottle of water.

“Yes,” Jay replied, arc energy trailing behind him, around his feet and shoulders. “She didn’t return to the village. There was no one there. I even checked the burial mound.”

“What do you mean?”

“I checked it. Dug it all out and buried it again,” Jay replied and snatched a fourth bottle from a kid offering more. He dug into his pocket and pulled an item to show Null. “Found this in the mound. It seems somehow useful.”

It was the flute made of bone that his mother had used to aid them in battle. Null buried it for a reason, but he could not take it away from the boy. “It was your mother’s. Perhaps you should’ve left it to rest with her.”

Jay shook his head, determined. “No, I think she would’ve wanted me to have it.”

They were close to the City already. Null could see the budding walls in the distance from a vantage point they climbed to. There was no point arguing or making the boy run back again. Their people were almost safe.

“We will camp here tonight,” Null announced as they backed away towards the sheltering hills. A raindrop fell onto his face and wolves howled in the distant forest. “Everybody stay close to me. If everything goes smoothly, we will reach the City tomorrow evening.”

As the rain strengthened and the people were safe with an improvised roof above their heads, Null joined Jay at the edge of a cliff, overlooking the City ahead. Null imagined it smaller. Null imagined the Traveler bigger.

“That’s it, then?” Jay asked, pointing at the spherical object hovering in the sky in silence.

“Yes. We’ve made it. No casualties since you joined,” Null informed him and heard the rustling of armour. “What are you doing?”

Jay dropped first his helmet, then his pauldrons and finally his chest plate to the ground. “I need to feel the rain. It’s different here,” he said as a thunder rumbled far above them. “Fresher. Safer. Purer.”

The boy removed his boots and stepped onto the dirt barefooted. In a single motion, he sat down, at the edge of the cliff, legs crossed and eyes focused on the Traveler. Null hesitated for barely a second before copying him in all but armour-removal. He sat cross-legged next to Jay and stared ahead.

“I think she’s in the City,” Jay said. “My sister. Evie. That was the plan, you said. To go to the City. So she must’ve gone there on her own. I will find her. And then I will stay and help everybody there.”

Null turned to watch his focused gaze and nodded.

Pride was not a word strong enough to describe the feeling he held for Jay. In these dark times, Jay was a single beacon of true hope for humanity. Null’s Little Light. He held the boy close and for a moment his mind was clear of violent dreams.


	6. Seraphs Sob

Null was always busy and when Null was busy, so was Jay. Wherever Null went, Jay followed at his heels. Whatever he was doing, Jay was there to help. The two shared a bond, an invisible line tying them together. Null often wondered if the reason for it had been his desperate vigil over Jay's body until Light awoke within him.

It did not matter. The Last City needed help and there was nothing two Titans couldn't do. The wall was rising, promising to protect what little humanity had left, including the wounded, silent sphere hovering above them. Sometimes, Null would sit in the midst of crowds and look at the sphere. Thanking it, perhaps, for the boy he grew to care for as his own son.

Jay had his business to attend to as well and Null let him go on his way when work was slow. He vowed to find his sister so she may know her brother is alive. But finding a single person you have no memory of, besides images and stories told by someone else, proved to be a difficult task. 

The young Titan sat down on a tree trunk near a spring, flowing just an hour of hiking away from the City. The water was fresh and cold, coming down from the mountains and speeding down the hill until it turned into a raging river. He looked to the City and its rising walls. Somewhere within, there was an Awoken woman, stricken with grief over losing her brother. But he was here and no matter how hard he tried, he could not find her within the crowded streets. 

So he decided to get some distance. Retreat into a place of calm and steadiness where he might be able to simply feel her through the ancient bonds that bound all Awoken. 

The tree trunk accepted his weight as he sat down cross-legged. He steadied his breathing. 

On his tongue, there was arc. Sparkling buzz of ionised air. The hair at the back of his neck stood as he focused. _Where was she_?

His hand moved on its own to the pocket at his side. 

Jay opened his eyes to see a flute made of bone in his hand. It was old and its cracks were charming. They spread across the length of the rich cream coloured bone, polished to glow with specks of starlight dust. Null told him this was his mother's. He never told him what it was for. 

Jay pressed it to his mouth and took a deep breath. When he released it, the flute emitted a tone of deep and ancient note, like an echo through a labyrinthian cavern. When he did it again, the tone changed to that of a storm over the open sea but as if heard from beneath the surface. 

"You called for me," a voice spoke from behind Jay.

Upon turning, Jay flinched.

There was a creature emerging from the trees, swaying its way through them like a liquid. Face like an eagle with mane like a lion. Body of a lion with wings of an eagle. Where it stood, grass parted before it touched the ground. The creature stopped in front of Jay and took a deep bow, its beak touching the floor. It lifted its head to stare at thoroughly perplexed Jay.

"O flute-player mine," it said in a voice that sounded like rustling leaves. The creature looked at the flute in Jay's hand. "I used to respond only to her. But now she's gone. I remember when you were born."

"W-who are you?" Jay managed to ask.

"A friend. A fiend. Whichever you need."

"What should I call you?"

The creature considered. "I've been mourning for her ever since she fell to my hunger. I wanted to keep her here, for you, but when I turned, she was gone. Thus is the story of Orpheus."

Jay would've already ran if not for the fact that the creature had obviously had a connection to his mother. Its words were heavy now, like branches snapping in the wind. 

"I have to find my sister. She doesn't know I'm alive."

"Are _you_ alive?"

Jay frowned and pouted. "To my knowledge, yes. But my sister doesn't know. I have to find her."

The creature moved its tail like a snap of a whip and in a flash, the tail was a serpent. "And you do not wish to do anything else? For yourself."

Jay shrugged. "I'll find her with or without your help. You said you knew my mother so if you wish to honor her, the best way to do so is to help me find my sister."

"If I wish--" the creature said, voice as a wind at the end of a storm. It cackled. "Your words are clever and your mind is sharp. Just like hers had been. I will honor her and I will honor you. Until you call me to devour you whole for the safety of someone you love."

Jay did not understand what any of that meant but it seemed like the creature agreed to help. 

"So, how can you assist me, Orpheus?"

The creature pointed its beak to the flute. "Play for me, now that I cannot play for myself."

"I don't know how to play. I just blew some air into it and you showed up."

Orpheus nudged the flute into Jay's hands. "Is that not what you would call success?"

Jay sighed and took the flute closer to his mouth. He really hoped that there were no other people nearby. In a way, this whole conversation felt like a dream. Perhaps he fell asleep at the tree trunk next to a spring and this was an elaborate dream.

He released air into the flute and it played the tone of war. Weapons clashing, at the far end of the newly built section of the wall. A woman in battle gear leaping from cover to cover, shooting monsters that swarmed the gate. He'd seen so many pictures of her in order to commit her image to memory that he knew right away. 

Evie. 

Jay lowered the flute. The scene so vivid in his mind that he could smell the scent of burnt flesh and gun oil. She is in the City. She did what she said she would. She came here to protect people and she was fighting as he sat, playing flutes. 

"Calm yourself, O flute-player mine," Orpheus said, walking around the trunk to sit in front of Jay. "She will be there when you come for her. Her tears of joy will swell your heart and her hug will flood you with love. I know this. There is no time to rush, or perhaps you might arrive too early."

"What are you talking about? What do you want?"

Orpheus chuckled like a pack of birds suddenly flying off into the sky, startled. "What do I want. I've not been asked of my wishes since her. It is fitting that her son would ask the same," the creature said. "I want you to play again. Before I must depart, I want you to see."

"See what?"

"Just see."

Jay fumbled with the flute, raising it back to his lips. If he does this, the creature will be satisfied and he will be able to go get Evie. He did as he was told and he played the flute once again. 

The tone was depth. A crack of ice and a giant above his head. Swirling orange storm stared at him as he walked over the snowy terrain. On his back, there was heavy equipment and he was dressed in a thick snowsuit. 

In front of him, a building. Pristine, clean, sleek. He walked confidently in a direction he knew nothing about, but somehow knew was correct at the same time. He shed layers of extra protective gear. People passed him by, greeting him. 

In a reflective glass case that held a cybernetic body, he saw his face. It startled him, but only one of him. The person he inhabited just walked forward. Unsurprised by the face staring him back. A face that was not blue.

A tone behind his ears now played as machinery in a factory. His office was a mess of equipment. All of it for Exos and their splendid designs. He heard himself laugh with someone sitting in a chair opposite his.

A shade of a man. His mind could not perceive his face, but instead projected withered wings onto his back. After the laugh, the man went somber. His wings dropped and several feather fell to the floor.

"I assure you, this is the best option there is. I will make sure that you're treated with the best Braytech Exoscience has to offer."

It was his voice, but also not. It was him, but also not. And the winged shade looked up and smiled as Jay held his hand in assurance. Warmth overwhelmed his body. For a brief moment, the man was not a shade but an angel with wings of fire and a body of a thousand metals.

The tone changed to the vacuum of space. The angel was below, buried in a tomb of ice and stone, and he was soaring up to the sky. Both of them cried as the space grew between them. And soon, the space grew so far that none of them knew of each other anymore.

One in a tomb, the other beyond the event horizon.

Jay put the flute down and saw only the steady spring, the City in the distance and the creature curled at his feet, asleep. Tears streamed down his face in silence. 

A profound sense of longing enveloped his entire body. 

Longing for something that he knew nothing about, someone he'd never met. 

"You play as I once played," Orpheus said. "Your sister awaits. And so does your angel."

Jay could not stop the sobbing to the point where speech was impossible. He gasped for air as the tears engulfed his whole body. Orpheus lifted its head and placed it in his lap, then spread its wings.

"I am not surprised you chose this form for me. Half lion, half eagle," Orpheus told him. "You put the flute away and go find the pieces you're missing, O lion mine."

Jay struggled to place the flute back into his pocket and as he managed, the creature disappeared. His mind cleared and he was able to breathe. Tears subsided and Jay sat in silence for an hour before he was able to finally move. 

His heart swelled when he saw Evie entering the City gates, fresh from combat, cleaning her rifle and smiling with her fellow soldiers. 

Her eyes widened as she saw him in the crowd, stunned. Gauging if her eyes played a trick on her. Jay smiled and she ran at him just like when they were children, only softer, grown, shaped by life and loss.

And her hug flooded his heart with love as they cried in each other's arms. 


	7. When the World’s in Hell Part I

Sizzling of a Fallen staff engulfed with arc piercing through Null’s left shoulder left scattered pieces of metal littering the ground. Used to it by this point, Null snapped it in half, groaning in pain, but pushing himself forward.

With a single leap, his fists were arc and the air around him was thunder. He smashed the ground, sending a shockwave that vaporised the enemy in front of him.

The swirl of combat around him invigorated his senses. It was what he knew. The clattering of steel and the burning howl of bullets. The Light turned to hammers and shields and thunder. Growling of the enemy against the shouts and screams of his comrades.

The Wall must not fall. It was a simple order, but one that was difficult to bring to reality when the said Wall encircled all of humanity. Miles and miles of rock and steel and boulder to protect all that humanity had left. A vulnerable pen filled with newborn chicks a fox could sneak into and a wolf could leap across and a devil could tear down with hellfire.

Null was second in command of defence for the eastern gate. There were five more gates; entry points where the Wall was most vulnerable.

The Fallen had attacked all of them at once.

The Hunters had warned the City with enough time to let the Titans and the Warlocks prepare for battle. Mounted on the Wall and striking from the tall grass, the Hunters covered from positions unseen. Without their scouting parties and warnings, the Last City might’ve fallen before the battle had even begun.

Warlock Orders flourished in the chaos of war. Flying over the enemy, raining hellfire back to the devils. The cold embrace of the void imploding entire packs of Fallen at once. Somewhere high above, a swarm of golden birds flew from gate to gate, commanding and redirecting Warlock forces to where they were needed most.

Every Titan in the City took up arms without questioning their orders. Every single one of them. They marched to their positions at the gates; six gates, six legions of Titans to defend them at all cost. They stood next to each other in unison, shoulder to shoulder, an unmoving wall of their own, just like the one they’ve built. Not a single one of them blinked as the Fallen rushed them.

“Do not die, and if you must, take a hundred down with you!” Null’s first commander yelled at his side.

The chattering of the enemy got closer and closer; their unfathomable language and their skiffs fat with soldiers and their strange weapons. They were here to annihilate every last human on Earth. Null vowed he would first break his fists on as many of them as possible. The Fallen ran into the Guardians in a chaotic mess of limbs, spears and shotguns.

All of it broke the moment they collided with the shields made of void.

A dull sound echoed across the battlefield as the shields rose up and the void held strong against the horde.

It was Null’s first time fully summoning the void. It was cold in his hands and empty in his core. Both feelings familiar to him from some other life he could not remember.

But when the enemy bounced off the shield and Null saw their panic, he swung it hard and when it flew through the Fallen, razing dozens of them with the sharp tendrils of cold fusion, his core lit up with a spark.

Next to him, there was a fellow Titan in silver armour. Purple light streaks glowing all around him as he wielded the void like he was born for it. Null paused as his own shield travelled back to him.

“You are not tired yet, my friend?!” The Titan in silver roared at Null.

Null took the time to snatch a Fallen attempting to stab his fellow Titan. Before the Fallen could leap onto its target, Null’s hand grabbed him tight and broke him with his bare hands.

“Not a chance,” Null replied.

The other Titan laughed as he gracefully spun the shield in his hand in order to slap Null across the back. Null did not flinch or move. “As I expected. Well fought, brother. Saint-14.”

Null’s shield returned to his hand. “Null-3.”

The two shook hands and threw their shields in opposite directions at the same time, creating a purple circle of destruction around them.

Battle of Six Fronts, they would call it later. Six vulnerable positions, all defended without a single breach.

Of course, there were losses, but they were losses that Null had learned to bear in his soul. Every loss was a hundred children saved. A hundred families protected. A hundred years of borrowed time.

And it was not the final battle nor the final moment to count their losses. The devils did not rest.

But neither did Null.

He would face the hellfire again.

“The void is not our enemy, brother,” Saint-14 told him at some point between the wars. “It can destroy but it also protects. Not many of us Guardians choose to go into battle to protect. Most of us want to fight, to find glory in combat. But we are Titans. We do not seek glory. A glorious battle is worth nothing if the fields are unploughed and the people starve.”

Null understood that more intimately than Saint-14 expected. “No civilian will go unprotected as long as I live.”

Saint-14 wrapped his arm around Null’s shoulder and they strolled through the City, admiring the simplicity of life unburdened by grief. The smell of battle was long gone, but Null knew there were more to come.

“I hear you have a son,” Saint-14 said.

“It is not official, but yes.”

“It is official as long as it is so in your heart,” Saint replied and tapped Null’s chest plate. “I saw the boy train. He is filled with energy.”

Null’s chest swelled with pride. “He is unique. I will leave him here while I go negotiate with the Iron Lords. He wants to stay close to his sister. She’s not one of us. Keep an eye on him, my friend.”

“Of course, brother.”

Null bid him farewell and departed on his mission to initiate a more substantial alliance with the Iron Lords on their icy mountain. They assisted during Six Fronts. He hoped they would continue to do so in wars to come.


End file.
